


little big dream

by sakuraba



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Drabble, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 18:11:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15370395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakuraba/pseuds/sakuraba
Summary: and some warm milk, too.(takes place during chapter 5. huge spoilers through the end thereof.)





	little big dream

**Author's Note:**

> hoo boy! what a whammy of a chapter, huh. these two are some of my favorites in the v3 cast, and their dynamic -- especially here -- really, really piques my interest, so, well. here we go!
> 
> this scrambles some dialogue just a little, but hopefully is still easy to follow along with as a canon-expansion.

“Hey, Momota-chan,” Ouma says. The way he might beggar attention out of him for a prank, or to jab at him, or right before he pulls the rug out from under all of them, but-- poison makes something soft and sleepy out of him, a child wandering aimlessly on their way to bed. His eyelids are a little droopy. “Momota-chan.”

Kaito swallows the lump in his throat. “What?”

Ouma doesn’t answer immediately, looking instead at his hand wrapped around the railing. The veins in his wrist are going an interesting color. Like spider legs. He still doesn’t answer.

“Hey,” Kaito says gruffly, hand meeting his shoulder. _Bony._ “You’re the one who said we needed to get a move on, right? Don’t go falling out on me now.”

“Mm? Right, right, so demanding.” He smiles wanly, and Kaito thinks maybe he’d shoot a peace sign if he could, poison and all. Then, that he's starting to get to know Ouma way too well. “But Momota-chan –- I know I'm your big baddie and all, but can you tap into your hero reserves for just a minute? I don’t think I can get down the stairs by myself.”

There's a lot he could say to that – _Some plan of yours if it’s brought down one a flight of stairs,_ maybe, or _Jesus Christ kid what did you_ do _to yourself,_ but he’s tired. It’s been a long day, and his arm hurts, and he’s got poison and antidote and his own body trying to make gore out of him, and he wants to see Harumaki and Shuichi again and he’s tired. So he just says yes.

Normally he’d just carry him –- Ouma’s so light, really, and it’s not like being dropped would do much damage now anyway –- but death is creeping in on ouma’s gait and it must sense some sort of kinship in its proximity. They struggle down the stairs together, their own little vaudeville comedy act just for the two of them, the big-guy-little-guy classic spitting blood onto the grating. He thinks about Harumaki and she’s laughing.

“Hey,” he says, suddenly. He doesn’t know why he bothers, but maybe–- “Ouma. What were some other lies you told, if you were lying about enjoying the killing game?”

In his peripheral vision, Kaito thinks he sees Ouma’s eyes take on a familiar twinkle. “Oh, oh! is Momota-chan gonna... gonna take up the torch for me when i'm gone?”

“Did that poison make you stupid?”

“No fun, no fun!” he pouts, and takes a second to breathe on the stairs. Kaito can feel it sinking into him -- feel it in his dead weight, in the pauses he's starting to take.  _As_   _if there could be anything fun about a game that kills people off like this._ Kaito's next breath rattles in his lungs. “It’s for the best, anyway – you’d probably do it wrong and ruin all the fun. So why... does my beloved Momota-chan want to know?”

Kaito considers this as Ouma catches his breath. He decides, maybe more out of spite given present company than anything else, to tell the truth. “I don’t know.”

Ouma giggles. “How dull, Momota-chan! But since you’re being such a gentleman…” They continue down the stairs, and Ouma pauses. Maybe to catch his footing, maybe to think about the question. “I was lying when I said I didn’t miss Amami-chan.”

Which... “Huh?”

"The resurrection ritual, remember?" (Kaito can't bite back a grimace. Ouma smiles up at him, more ghost than not himself at this point.) "I said I didn’t want him to come back, but I did. He was… fun. And he kept candy in his pockets.”

“Why would you–-“ Kaito sighs, goes to rake one of his hands through his hair before remembering both of them are occupied. He's tired. “Never mind. Anything else?”

Ouma stumbles a little; Kaito catches him, gives him a moment to reorient himself. The next time he speaks, the words sound much heavier in his throat. “I never hated Iruma-chan. She was my best friend.”

“Well, yeah. You spent all your free time hanging out in her lab.” For the first time in what feels like lifetimes, Kaito falters. Grimaces, feels the sober of the situation unfurl across his face. “Though… I guess you would’ve had to, to-–”

“Nope!” Ouma interrupts cheerily, and yeah, that’s a habit he won’t miss. Still, the chip of it is a little thin, this time, forced. “Coulda… just left her to it. We had fun together. She was… never boring. Ahaha.”

Silence drags on for a moment. The end of the step is approaching. “Guess it must’ve hurt, when she…”

Against his side, he can feel Ouma jerk a little, probably in an almost-shrug. “Yeah, well. Not like I have much room to talk, huh.” He sniffs. “But Momota-chan, you shouldn’t lie.”

“What now?” he says, annoyed. Still, even as they reach the end of the stairs and move towards the press, he doesn’t let go of Ouma’s frame. “I'm not even the one talking.”

Then, uncharacteristically serious: “I wasn’t lying about liking Saihara-chan.” He coughs a little. “Besides, the same lie gets boring if you drag it on too long, right! That woulda been waaaay too dull.”

Kaito doesn’t say anything.

So Ouma sighs dramatically, plopping down onto the press with as much flourish as someone minutes from death can muster. “But it was no good! He was just far too loyal to his beloved Momota-chan. I suppose I'll play the no-good would-be homewrecker to the end!”

Phantom heat lingers against his side, under the crook of his arm. “You should have just told him,” he says, and hates the way the words feel in his mouth. “You should have just told him. Shuichi is… earnest. When he feels, he feels, but I mean –- you watched Akamatsu die with the rest of us, man. This is the sort of thing you should be straightforward about.” The present tense slips out without thought.

Ouma quirks a smile up at him, strained out of pain or something else. His eyelids are still droopy. “Ah, well. Call it a difference in personality, then.” He closes his eyes, and Kaito thinks, _He could be going to sleep._ “Now if my beloved Momota-chan isn't going to give me a goodnight kiss, let’s get this going. It's really getting hard to breathe.”

Kaito shakes his head. Represses the sympathy pangs, because this -- this, this, this. There will be plenty of time for that later. “You’re… seriously crazy, dude.”

“ _Neehehe!_ ” he giggles, and Kaito rolls his eyes, something dangerously close to fondness lurking underneath all that annoyance. He starts back up the stairs, Ouma’s voice trailing behind him. “But, y’know… I… wasn’t boring, right?”

**Author's Note:**

> that little in-game quote of ouma's re:why he hates the killing game is taken from [this translation](http://oumakokichi.tumblr.com/post/166327441530/what-do-you-think-about-nisamericas-localization) rather than the official localization -- it's a great read and i highly recommend it if you like ouma's character!


End file.
